Mercer-Taylor, Peter

Peter Mercer-Taylor lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, Beth, and their three children. The Mercer-Taylor house is strewn with musical instruments, various combinations of which get regular use from all five of them (the most recent addition is a drum kit made of Tupperware, C-clamps, and duct tape). Peter’s own musical commitments, expressed both in his teaching and his scholarship, are divided between 19th-century European classical music, rock-era popular song, and hymnody. After six delightful years of teaching in Valparaiso University’s honors college—where his preponderantly Lutheran colleagues graciously made room for a high-church Episcopalian—Peter joined the musicology faculty at the University of Minnesota, where he has taught since 2001.

Recordings

Audio Archive

Recordings

Hymn Music as Text Setting

Which Tune? Which Text?

Musical Structure and the Meaning of Hymns

Hymns and Classical Music

Hymns Within Hymns

Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 1: "We Walk in the Sun": The Principles of Redemption in 'Seventies Arena' Rock

Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 2: "Above the Scarlet Tide": Faith & Doubt in Songs of Loss

Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 3: "A Slob Like Us": God as Novelty Song Subject

Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 4: "In A Locust Wind": Evaluating Pop's Biblical and Christian Imagery

Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 5: "I Sing in the Reaches": When Non-religious Songs do the Work of God

“We’ll Walk in the Sun”: The Notion of Redemption in Seventies Arena Rock

“A Slob Like One of Us”: God as Novelty Song Subject

“How Long Must We Sing This Song?”: Faith, Pop Music, and the Unjust Death

“Give Faith a Fighting Chance”: Encountering Country Music’s Spirituality

“Keep Achieving Wonders”: Pop Music and the Recovery of Hope

“The Sense of What You Sing”: Hymn Music as Text Setting

Which Tune? Which Text?

Musical Structure as an Agent of Meaning

Hymnody as Classical Music Sampler

“Then Sings My Soul”: Hymns Within Hymns

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